The Supreme Court on Friday refused to extend the one-week transit anticipatory bail granted to Congress leader Pawan Khera by Telangana High Court, which ended on Friday.

Khera is facing criminal cases registered against him by Assam police for his allegation that chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma possessed passports of three countries.

As Khera's transit anticipatory bail has not been extended, there is no legal bar on Assam police to arrest him. As the courts will be closed for the next two days, the earliest Khera, who is untraceable, can seek relief is Monday.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi pleaded in the apex court that Khera was neither a “hardened criminal” nor a “terrorist” that he should be subjected to a “witch hunt” by Assam police and denied interim bail. The court, however, asked him to explore remedies in Assam, saying the Congress leader ought not to have allegedly fabricated documents to seek relief from Telangana High Court.

However, a bench of Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Atul S. Chandurkar said any observations made by the apex court shall not have any bearing on the trial court deciding Khera’s anticipatory bail plea.

This is the second setback Khera has suffered in two days as on Wednesday the bench had stayed the operation of the transit anticipatory bail granted by the high court on an appeal filed by Assam police, which had alleged that Khera had fabricated documents to claim that he and his wife were residents of Telangana and therefore fell under the legal jurisdiction of the high court of that state.

Singhvi told the top court on Friday that “there was a small mistake and mix-up” on account of which Khera had initially placed some documents before Telangana High Court.

Justice Maheshwari asked: “You are saying this is a small error?”

The senior counsel, however, stuck to his argument that Khera’s wife was a resident of Telangana, had earlier contested the Assembly elections in that state and had a residence there.

“Am I a hardened criminal or a terrorist that hundreds of Assam policemen are hunting for me?” Singhvi asked, referring to Khera. The lawyer added that Khera was being persecuted merely because he had spoken against the chief minister’s wife.